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HOW TO DO IRIS PAPER FOLDING - For Cards, Artwork, Scrapbooking and other Craft Projects
Jan 15, 2025
This video will show you how easy iris paper folding is even though the effects can be amazing! I will show you exactly how to do it and you do not need any expensive craft equipment.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You will need:
Card
Coloured paper (like this from Amazon https://amzn.to/392bePy)
Scissors (like these from Amazon https://amzn.to/3nIsJJ6)
Ruler
Pencil
Tape (like this from Amazon https://amzn.to/35NInfQ)
In this video I use an iris folding template from https://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/iristmpl.php . Thank you , Judy, for allowing me to use it in this video.
On my blog I also have a tutorial showing you how to do iris folding so if you feel that you need more guidance check it out at https://christines-crafts.com/iris-paper-folding/
If you enjoy crafting my blog is full of great ideas and tutorials. Plus if you subscribe you gain access to my free resource library and get to hear about my latest projects first. Take a look at https://christines-crafts.com/
Enjoy watching and crafting your own iris paper folding projects.
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0:00
hi today i'm going to show you how to do
0:02
iris paper folding it's great for making
0:04
cards or art or anything you like
0:07
looks really effective but really simple
0:09
to do and inexpensive
0:11
i'm christine of christine's crafts.com
0:14
and i'm going to show you how to do it
0:16
today so what are you going to need
0:18
you're going to need some card to mount
0:20
your picture on
0:22
you're going to need some colored paper
0:25
to do your design
0:26
i've got a large selection here i'm not
0:28
going to use all of them it's entirely
0:29
up to you how many different colors you
0:31
use depends what effect you're looking
0:32
for
0:33
you're going to need a design and you're
0:36
going to need two copies of it
0:38
this one's from handcraftedgreetings.com
0:40
and the details are below in the
0:42
description but you can get them
0:43
anywhere
0:44
on the internet you're also going to
0:47
need
0:47
some sellotape or some sort of tape it
0:51
doesn't have to be cello tape i know
0:52
it's a brand
0:54
some masking tape low tacks the best
0:56
it's just to hold it together while
0:57
you're working
0:58
some double-sided tape to mount your
1:00
finished design
1:02
some scissors to cut your paper and your
1:04
cardboard
1:06
a pencil and a ruler
1:10
so let's get started you're going to
1:13
take one of your sheets with your
1:15
designs on
1:16
and just and decide which one you want
1:19
now i think i want that larger triangle
1:21
but now i'm looking at it against my
1:22
card i think the smaller one's probably
1:24
better so from one sheet
1:27
cut out the design you're going to use
1:30
this
1:32
to draw it onto your card
1:35
so you're just going to draw around the
1:37
shape now in this case it's a simple
1:38
triangle
1:40
but it could be a complex shape like a
1:43
butterfly or some other
1:44
creature or animal so position it where
1:48
you would like on your card
1:49
and i'm simply going to mark the corners
1:51
because it's a simple shape
1:53
for a more complex shape i'll draw all
1:55
the way around it
1:57
i'm now going to use my ruler just to
1:59
join those points up
2:05
we're then going to need to cut the
2:07
shape out
2:08
of the card so that you can build your
2:10
iris design up inside it
2:13
you can use a craft knife and a cutting
2:16
board
2:17
but because i'm trying to keep it to
2:18
things you're probably going to have in
2:20
your house i'm going to do it with
2:21
scissors
2:22
you'll notice i use a little tiny pair
2:24
to make a hole
2:25
and then an ordinary pair of scissors
2:27
just to cut around it
2:29
i think you do generally get a better
2:31
effect with a craft knife
2:32
cutting carefully but scissors work
2:36
perfectly well
2:37
and you'll see here you can get a very
2:39
good effect
2:40
if you're not happy with the edge you're
2:41
not quite right just tidy up any loose
2:44
bits
2:46
and then we're gonna have our shape
2:48
ready to go
2:51
so next we need to get the other sheet
2:53
that's a complete design
2:56
and place it underneath our cardboard so
2:59
that the whole design is showing through
3:02
and we're then going to tape that down
3:04
so it doesn't wander around while we're
3:06
working
3:07
hence you want low tack if you can just
3:10
so you don't keep damaging your card
3:12
or your template if you're going to
3:14
reuse it
3:15
make sure you're perfectly lined up
3:19
and just tape it in place
3:22
and that's ready to go so now we need to
3:25
prepare our colored paper
3:26
i've picked three colors because it's a
3:28
triangle and i want to do three
3:29
different colors on three different
3:30
sides
3:32
and you need to cut some strips i tend
3:34
to do mine about an
3:35
inch wide now you're going to see here
3:38
it really doesn't matter
3:40
and it doesn't matter how accurate those
3:41
inches are
3:43
as long as they're about that it'll work
3:45
perfectly
3:46
so you can see once i've measured one
3:48
i'm doing it by eye
3:50
i'm doing as many as i think you can
3:52
always cut some more later
3:56
and then i'm going to prepare them okay
4:00
so each piece of paper place the ruler
4:04
approximately two-thirds of the way
4:07
across it
4:08
and fold the paper over it
4:12
now this gives you a beautiful straight
4:14
edge which is what you're looking for
4:17
and then take the ruler out and run your
4:19
finger all the way along it to make it a
4:21
nice
4:22
firm crease you can do it with your
4:24
fingernail if you like to get a really
4:26
crisp edge
4:28
but that edge is the edge that you are
4:30
going to see
4:31
on your design when you're finished so
4:34
i'm just going to show you that again
4:36
put your ruler about two-thirds of the
4:38
way across
4:40
and fold the paper over the ruler to get
4:42
that nice straight edge
4:45
once you're happy with that take the
4:48
ruler away
4:49
and firm it down and just repeat that
4:51
for all your strips so you've got lots
4:54
of strips with a nice
4:55
folded edge along them then we go back
4:58
to our design
5:00
and we look it's all numbered so it
5:02
tells you what order to do it in
5:04
so take one piece and this is what we're
5:07
going to use
5:08
for the one that's labeled one make sure
5:11
the folded edge is
5:12
in on the design so that that shows
5:15
through your cardboard to the other side
5:17
because we're working on the wrong side
5:19
of our cardboard at the moment
5:22
place it on make sure it lines up with
5:24
the edge of
5:25
section one and tape it in place
5:30
as long as your tape doesn't go over the
5:32
edge of your cardboard and appear on the
5:34
other side as long as it doesn't appear
5:36
through the hole that you made in your
5:37
cardboard
5:38
it's absolutely fine it doesn't matter
5:40
where you tape it
5:42
so we've done section one now look at
5:45
section two
5:47
decide what color you would like cut
5:50
your strip down to length
5:52
place it exactly on the line along the
5:55
edge of section two
5:57
and tape it in place
6:01
now because i'm using three different
6:02
colors i'll now swap to my other color
6:05
to do section three
6:08
i'm sure you're starting to get the idea
6:10
place it on
6:12
cut it to length
6:16
and tape it in place and that's it i'm
6:20
all the way around
6:21
so i'm just going to carry on working my
6:22
way through the numbers
6:24
four five six and onwards right through
6:26
to the middle
6:28
so as you can see i've sped this bit up
6:30
but you just keep working your way
6:32
around
6:33
you'll see that i'm using a different
6:34
color on each side because that's the
6:36
effect i'm going for
6:37
it's entirely up to you you could do all
6:39
of this in one color you could do it in
6:40
lots of different colors
6:42
experiment get creative make the design
6:45
you're looking for
6:46
but you'll see the gap in the middle is
6:48
getting smaller and smaller
7:01
just keep working my way around and
7:04
shortly i'm going to get to the point
7:05
where i've only got that little space in
7:07
the middle a triangle
7:08
and it's up to you what you do with that
7:10
triangle you can leave it with nothing
7:12
in it if you're going to put something
7:14
nice and colored behind or you want to
7:16
just see a picture behind
7:18
what i'm going to do is select a
7:19
completely different color
7:22
yeah let's go for the blue and i'm just
7:24
going to stick a piece of that
7:26
over the center and that will just fill
7:28
it in for me
7:30
and that's it i've covered the whole
7:32
thing so now i need to carefully remove
7:35
my tape
7:37
and when i turn it over i should be able
7:39
to see the great reveal
7:41
the design is finished
7:45
really pleased with that so now i can
7:48
just mount that wherever i want to go
7:50
so i'm obviously going to place mine on
7:52
a card
7:53
so i've cut it down to the size of the
7:55
card and i'm now just going to put
7:58
double-sided sellotape on the front of
8:00
the card
8:02
and stick it on so i'm just going to run
8:05
it all the way around the outside
8:07
so it'll be a good firm hold
8:12
if you were putting yours in a frame you
8:14
might not need to mount it on anything
8:16
you might be able to just stick it
8:17
straight in your frame
8:18
doing it on cards you may cover the
8:20
whole front of the card or you may just
8:22
cover a section of it
8:23
it's entirely up to you
8:27
as you can see mine's going to cover the
8:28
whole card
8:31
and there you have it design all
8:32
finished and the great
8:34
iris effect in the middle
8:38
so i hope you've enjoyed watching i hear
8:40
a couple of other designs that i've done
8:42
about to fly in a christmas tree
8:44
you'll see you can make loads of them so
8:46
thank you for watching good luck with
8:48
your iris paper folding
8:49
please remember if you enjoyed my videos
8:51
subscribe below leave me some comments
8:53
give us a thumbs up
8:55
and i'll see you again in the next video
8:57
bye
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